David Kranes is the author of seven novels and three volumes of short stories--most recently, the novel Abracadabra (2017) and the collection of stories The Legend’s Daughter (2013). His 2001 novel, The National Tree, was made into a film by Hallmark, which aired in November, 2009. His short fiction, which has appeared in such magazines as Esquire, Ploughshares, and Transatlantic Review, has won literary prizes and been widely anthologized. Over 40 of his plays have been performed in New York and across the U.S (in theaters such as The Actors’ Theater of Louisville, The Mark Taper Forum, Manhattan Theater Club, Cincinatti’s Playhouse in the Park; his Selected Plays was published in 2010. His most recent theater venture was contributing a play to an evening of six short plays on the theme of "bravery," three written by American playwrights, three by Iraqi playwrights. His play, A Loss of Appetite was performed at Salt Lake Acting Company on April, 2014 to honor his extensive body of work. He has written for radio, film and for dance companies. The opera, Orpheus Lex, for which he wrote the libretto, was performed at New York City’s Symphony Space in February of 2010 and again, recently, in Salt Lake. For 14 years, he directed the Playwrights' Lab at Robert Redford's Sundance Institute. In 2015, he was asked to recreate a national-in-scope version of this Playwright's Lab for Salt Lake Acting Company, which has been a resounding success. His latest novel, Abracadabra (2018) was given a starred review in Publisher's Weekly and is being shopped for a television series. Mr. Kranes is an award-recognized mentor and continues mentoring whenever and wherever he can, most recently, in Provence, France.
Work
From
From "Sheila: A Song"
Life's a distraction. Life's a distraction, and what any of us do is distraction-in-the-distraction. So I scrambled their ADT alarm, fed Handyman baby veal packed with a sedative. And, while he was falling asleep, opened a nice '92 Mondavi Reserve Cabernet, which was a little husky, had a bit of an echo; still, was adequate. I'd taught anesthesiology and kept up--felt the need--so that the question of "what do you use on a nearly 60-year-old with freon scarring?" wasn't even a question. You unfurl the flag. You undo the knot. You replace the washer with a microchip.
And though I wouldn't ever call Sheila "difficult," she wasn't "easy." "You!" she said. And her eyes lit--half in expectation, half in warning--and she kicked before she went under. "You!" she said. "You!" I said. And smiled. You!
When she woke up, it was Thursday. I was silkscreening. Wallpaper. I put her under again--something in her breath. Something in her eyes. Something in the cleft of her chin, the clasp on her bracelet when she reached out for my wrist. The way her hair fell. Touch. Her neck. I would like to say none of my crimes have been violent. Caprice, though, is one thing; heedlessness is another. I rolled her up in some wallpaper, and her skin chafed and shifted against the silkscreen.
When I was sixteen--graduating early and poised for college-- a woman in Massachusetts said, "You're our future. We expect...." And she paused. "What," I said. "Everything," she said. And she leaned in, kissed me, smearing the kiss badly. I stopped passing drinks and went into a small second-floor room stacked with toys. I brought my dog, LuckyCharm, and sat patting him, pressing my cheek into his belly on the hardwood floor. I thought, Everything. I thought, Everything: we expect everything. And it seemed easy enough. Everything. I mean: why not? It's just.... But it also seemed what it was: a wet, drunken kiss. And it's the nature of any wet, drunken kiss to be deceptive.
Bibliography
Novels
Margins (Knopf, 1972).
Criminals (Charter, Grosset Dunlap, 1987).
Keno Runner (University of Utah Press, 1989; reissued University of Nevada Press, 1994).
Making The Ghost Dance, (Signature Press, 1995).
The National Tree (Peregrin-Smith 1995, later made into a Hallmark Film)
Abracadabra (University of Nevada Press, 2018).
Story Collections
Hunters in The Snow (University of Utah Press, 1979).
Low Tide in the Desert, 1996).
The Legend's Daughter, (Torrey House Press, 2013).
Selected Plays
David Kranes: Selected Plays; (Level 4 Press, 2014).
Gaming Related Book
David Kranes on Casino Design, (Raving Consulting Press, 2010).
